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Never has New York been this entertaining. New media may be hot in some parts of town, but over a far wider swath of Manhattan, the boom industry of the moment is a far older form of media: live theater.
From Broadway to the off-off-Broadway basement venues of Union Square and the Lower East Side, theater is booming. Some 8 million people attended non-Broadway stage shows at the 146 member theaters of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York during the 1997-98 season, an 11% gain over the previous season's levels.
Off- and off-of-Broadway theaters have seen the biggest gains. Since the current season began in September, 15 stage troupes have christened homes with plays and musicals. Another five theaters are slated to open by March.
The new theaters, with audience capacities ranging from 75 to 399, led previous lives as banks, fitness clubs, movie houses, porn shops and ballrooms. Several of them -- including Joe's Pub at the Joseph Papp Public Theater (cost: $1.7 million) and Laurie Beechman Theatre at Westbank Cafe (cost: $450,000) -- were designed to expand the offerings of existing establishments.
If all goes according to plan, alternative theaters will crop up at...